Keuchel’s spring scoreless streak is snapped

JUPITER, Fla. – While dealing with a drop in velocity, Astros lefthander Dallas Keuchel’s spring scoreless inning streak was snapped Tuesday afternoon when he gave up Giancarlo Stanton’s majestic three-run home run in the first inning.

“For sure, for sure,” he said when asked if his velocity was down. “Obviously I could tell throwing the fastball (for) the guys it was just like a beach ball coming up there today,” he said. “But I’m not really too worried about velocity at this point right now. Now if it was late April, May I’d be kind of worried.”

Jake Marisnick led off the bottom of the first for the Marlins with a single to left. Donovan Solano followed with a bunt single to third. Stanton then drilled his shot off the roof of the building behind the left field wall at Roger Dean Stadium, setting the tone for the Marlins’ 8-1 victory.

Keuchel’s fastball is usually around 88-91-mph. On Tuesday it was often around 84-mph, which isn’t much faster than his changeup.

Keuchel, who is competing for a spot in the Astros’ rotation, had thrown nine scoreless innings over his previous three Grapefruit League appearances. He gave up seven runs on 13 hits with one strikeout over four innings, throwing 45 of his 76 pitches for strikes.

“I’m not too worried about velocity right now even though as a competitor I want to get outs and want to be in midseason form,” he said. “But I know there’s a long road to go. If I just execute my pitches right now everything will come together.”

“It’s that point in spring where you probably see a little bit of drop of velocity,” Porter said. “And then as you get into the last week and obviously the first week of the season it’s going to come back.”

Admittedly too stubborn to go away from his fastball and changeup while giving up three runs in the first and four more in the second inning, Keuchel turned to his breaking pitches while finishing with two scoreless frames.

“It looked like the pace was a little bit slower today in the game; like it took a little bit of time to get into the grove,” he said. “Whereas the third and fourth inning that’s the pace you’re used to seeing out of Keuchel. He put up zeroes in both of those innings. I was actually proud of that fact that he struggled the first two innings and went out and was able to get his pitch count up and have a strong third frame and fourth frame.”